'Beach Scene, 1982' by Malcolm Morley, Over-Sized, Hand-Signed Post-Impressionist Lithograph, Umbrellas on the Coast

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Signed in graphite, lower right, 'Malcolm Morley' (British-American, 1931-2018) with number and limitation, '6/58' and created in 1982 on Arches … Read more Signed in graphite, lower right, 'Malcolm Morley' (British-American, 1931-2018) with number and limitation, '6/58' and created in 1982 on Arches paper.
Published by Tyler Graphics, Ltd., Mount Kisco, New York (from blindstamp, lower right)
Catalogue number: Tyler 374
Master printers: Lee Funderburg, Roger Campbell
For protection, this work will ship framed.

Born in North London, Morley first joined an artists' colony in St. Ives, Cornwall, before attending the Camberwell School of Arts, and then the Royal College of Art (1954–1957), where his fellow students included Peter Blake and Frank Auerbach.

In 1957, Morley visited New York and, inspired by the Abstract Expressionist art scene, moved there the following year after which he met artists including Barnett Newman, Cy Twombly, Roy Lichtenstein, and Andy Warhol. His first solo exhibition was at Kornblee Gallery in 1964, partly at the urging of the art dealer Ivan Karp, who had a reputation as a talent spotter and had worked with the legendary dealer Leo Castelli. During his early years in the United States, Morley traveled abroad to India, Africa, and the Caribbean. He also began his teaching career and gave lectures at Columbus, the Visual Arts School of New York, and the State University of New York.

In 1964, Morley was influenced by the Pop Art of Andy Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein and pioneered Photo Realism—or "super-realism" as he preferred to call it—in which he meticulously created copies of Old Master paintings and images from widely circulated brochures, postcards, posters and newspapers. Using a magnifying glass and a grid (rather than an episcope, which would allow for greater precision), he worked square by square in isolation, giving it an abstract autonomy. He positioned himself on the fringes of hyperrealism by using a brush rather than an airbrush in order to leave signs of his works being a "reproduction of a reproduction".

In the 1970s, Morley moved to Florida and his work became more gestural. His style was distinctly Neo-Expressionist in the 1980s and, in 1984, Morley was the recipient of the first annual Turner Prize. By the end of the decade, Morley had returned to Photo Realism, and also began making large sculptural installations based on model airplanes. This later work is partially inspired by the traumatic memories of his youth during the bombings of London.

Malcolm Morley exhibited widely and with success including at Clocktower Gallery, Institute for Art and Urban Resources, New York (1976); Nancy Hoffman Gallery, New York (1979); Stefanotty Gallery, New York (1979); Documenta, in Kassel (1972, 1977); the Carnegie International (1985); Whitney Museum of American Art (1970, 1972); Young Contemporaries, London (1956, 1957); The Photographic Image, Guggenheim Museum, New York (1964); Sao Paulo Biennale (1967); Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago (1971, 1983); Paris Biennale (1985); Corcoran Gallery (1983); Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris (1993), among others. Malcolm Morley is well-listed in art dictionaries including Benezit's Definitive Dictionary of Artists which includes a signature sample.

Public Collections (selected):

Albright-Knox Art Gallery, Buffalo, New York
Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, UK
Astrup Fearnley Museum of Modern Art, Oslo, Norway
Bonnefantenmuseum, Maastricht, Holland
Broad Foundation, Los Angeles, California
Centre Pompidou, Paris
Corcoran Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Detroit Institute of Arts, Detroit, Michigan
Everson Museum of Art, Syracuse, New York
Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York
Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden, Washington, D.C.
Kröller-Müller Museum, Netherlands
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek, Denmark
Ludwig Forum für Internationale Kunst, Aachen, Germany
Ludwig Museum, Budapest, Hungary
Masterworks Museum of Bermuda Art Paget, Bermuda
Munson-Williams-Proctor Arts Institute, Utica, New York
Museum Ludwig, Cologne, Germany
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Musée National d'Art Moderne, Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris, France
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Spain
Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, Illinois
Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, California
Museum of Modern Art, New York
Museum van Hedendaagse Kunst, Utrecht, Netherlands
National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, Kansas City, Missouri
National Air and Space Museum, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C.
Orlando Museum of Art, Orlando, Florida
Parrish Art Museum, Southampton, New York
Rhode Island School of Design, Providence, Rhode Island
Sammlung Frieder Burda, Baden-Baden, Germany
Seattle Art Museum, Seattle, Washington
Tate, London
Virginia Museum of Fine Arts, Richmond, Virginia
Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut
Walker Art Center, Minneapolis, Minnesota
Whitney Museum of American Art, New York

Reference:
Who Was Who in American Art 1564-1975: 400 Years of Artists in America, Peter Hastings Falk, Sound View Press 1999, Vol. 2, page 2333; E. Benezit, Dictionnaire des Peintres, Sculpteurs, Dessinateurs, et Graveurs, Jacques Busse, 1999 Nouvelle Édition, Gründ 1911, Vol. , page 864-865; Wikipedia; et al. See less